Mishawaka football rides huge second half to down Marian

MISHAWAKA — It was a tale of two distinctly different halves at Mishawaka Marian Friday night.

The Mishawaka Cavemen were surely glad of that too.

Coach Keith Kinder's squad responded in a huge way with a dominating second half showing to down the Knights 41-24 in the high school football season opener for both squads at Bob Otolski Field.

More: Can youthful offense catch up to veteran defense for Mishawaka football in 2024?

Sophomore Kadyn O'Neal rushed for three touchdowns, all in the second half, as Mishawaka erased a 17-7 halftime deficit to beat the Knights for the fourth straight season to earn bragging rights once again in the Princess City.

Mishawaka (1-0) will host Penn (1-0) next Friday night, while Marian (0-1) travels to Culver Academy.

The Cavemen, who were 9-3 a season ago with a Class 5A sectional title, were resilient after a tough opening half marked by a pair of turnovers and seven penalties.

"There was no panic at halftime," said Mishawaka coach Keith Kinder by phone following the game Friday night. "The message to our team was that things are going to happen, sometimes bad things. It's about how you respond to it.

"It was about let's get back to our system and play fast and physical and we did that well in the second half. It was about playing with composure and we did that. I thought we got off to a good start and then had a bad second quarter.

"Both teams played hard and it was an extremely physical game. For us, the effort, energy and physicality were there. It was fun to watch."

The Cavemen, who beat Marian 44-12 a season ago, outscored the host Knights 34-7 in the final half of the non-conference contest. O'Neal scored three times, including in the final minute of the third period on a two-yard run to put his team ahead for good at 20-17.

Marian, which finished 5-5 a year ago, took a 17-7 halftime lead with the final 17 points of the opening half. Brian Osman scored on a 37-yard run, Lucas Marr hit Deuce Owens with a 15-yard touchdown toss and Lucas Primrose hit a 33-yard field goal on the final play of the first half.

More: Preview: Mishawaka Marian football ready to be among state's best again in 2024

Mishawaka took a 7-0 lead in the opening period on a 25-yard touchdown run by senior Gage Spychalski. Spychalski added another touchdown run early in the final period for the Cavemen.

Mishawaka, the Northern Lakes Conference co-champion in 2023, got one final touchdown run late by Carson Francis.

"Offensively, we were not consistent enough tonight to beat a good football team like Mishawaka," said Marian coach Michael Davidson. "I thought that our lack of execution on offense contributed to us wearing down on defense. It's just a matter of time against an offense like theirs when you can't execute yourself offensively.

"I was pleased with how hard our guys played. They played with effort, fast and physical and left everything they had out there. That's the first step towards becoming a good football team.

"Our message to our guys was simple. If we learn from this and come ready to work to fix things we can be a pretty good football team. The biggest thing is that we need to clean things up, eliminate mistakes and just be more consistent."

The Knights, who have 14 returning starters, hurt themselves with three turnovers and eight penalties.

Kinder, whose team lost its top three rushers from a season ago, praised the work of O'Neal.

"I thought that he grew up a lot tonight," said Kinder of his sophomore star. "He had some good, powerful runs and also some longer ones. We decided to run right at them in the second half."

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Mishawaka football rides huge second half to down Marian